CAT 2017 Preparation: How to move from 75 to 95 and get IIM-A, B, C - toppers show the way

If you scored 75 percentile in CAT last year or your preparation strategy for CAT 2017 gives you somewhere around 75 or 80 percentile in Mocks, you need a little more to achieve your goal of 90 or 95 percentile to get shortlisted by IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore or Calcutta provided you have good academic profile also.

IIMs Admission related Links

• IIM Ahmedabad Admission 2018: CAT 2017 cut offs announced; needs 70 sectional percentile
• IIM Calcutta Admission: Lowers CAT 2017 cut offs with 56% weight; 40% goes to academics
• IIM Lucknow admission 2018: CAT 2017 cut offs announced; needs 90 overall & 85 sectional in CAT
• IIM Indore Admission 2018: CAT 2017 cut off announced; class 10 & 12 marks get 76% weight  

Add 20 percentile with tips from toppers
Past CAT toppers Avidipto, Ketki, Pranjal, Vidit, Saransh, Ananth advise that your preparation journey to crack CAT 2017 with high percentile, would require smart preparation strategy along with good reading skills, fast calculation ability with short cut tricks and high level of conceptual understanding.

Avidipto scored 100 percentile in CAT 2016; Pranjal-100 percentile in CAT 2015; Ketki Gupta- 99.58 percentile in CAT 2016; Vidit Garg with 89.67 percentile in CAT 2016 got PGP 2017-19 at IIM Ahmedabad.

You need to study more in less time. Accordingly, instead of getting stuck on one topic or particular type of questions, move forward on your preparation as getting stuck to one point will not only result in wastage of your time but also getting demotivated to some extent.

Have a mentor: Single Point Advice from Ketki
Ketki Gupta who scored 99.58 in CAT 2016 advises the CAT 2017 aspirants to have a disciplined routine to practise. You may feel low and unsure of your chances especially when you are not able to study well and did not know what to do. At such times, you will need a mentor who could not only motivate you but also guide you through difficulties.

4 scoring tips from IIM Ahmedabad student Pranjal
Pranjal Agarwal, CAT 100 percentiler and IIM Ahmedabad student shares 4 key tips:

• Take as many full length mock tests as you can. That will help out on your overall performance as it gives you an idea of time management and difficulty of all topics.
• Review all the tests you give to identify your weaknesses. That is important so that you can work on those weaknesses specifically.
• Give more focus to your weak topics because in the end, you are required to perform almost equally well on all the sections.
• Don’t study everything from the beginning, because some topics are too basic to spend time on.

Master the DILR: Suggests IIM Bangalore student Ananth
Ananth Radhakrishnan who scored 99.85 in CAT and is a student of IIM Bangalore suggests that you should get into groove of DILR by practicing more on them. This will help to maximize your CAT 2017 score in this section. 

Another tip that Ananth shares is to treat CAT as not a difficult paper inherently in terms of the topics covered. But it is the time limit in which you have to complete it coupled with the dire need of accuracy while doing so. To solve the issue the best way is to take more mock tests, analyse what has gone wrong and try your best to mend the mistakes before the next test.

Solve Previous test papers: Advises FMS Delhi student Saransh
Saransh Garg who scored 99.98 in CAT and joined FMS Delhi instead of IIMs advises CAT 2017 aspirants to utilize their holidays by solving previous years’ CAT questions.  In his view, it will be good if you take a few mocks and improve your confidence level. He suggests that taking Mock in actual test condition will eliminate nervousness; will help greatly in time management; and will give you a lot of confidence. Saransh also advises not to get stuck on any question for more that 2 minutes in the mock also so that you can get an exact feel of CAT day.

Aim for 99 to get 95: Use the experience
CAT is considered as the most tricky entrance examination to top Management Institutes in India like IIMs, FMS, MDI, IMI, IITs, NITIE among others. Most of the candidates who tried to gain confidence by putting in great efforts to prepare for CAT 2016 in their first attempt but couldn’t score high to get the desired IIM, have already started their preparation for CAT 2017 meticulously as against those who have got their confidence shaken and stopped their preparation for CAT 2017.

Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2017 preparation shares how you could move forward with your journey of improving the CAT score from low to high and make your dream of getting admission in IIM come true.

If you had percentile score of 75 in CAT 2016, you could very well score 95 percentile in CAT 2017 with little more efforts. The need is to analyse where you lagged behind, overcome the weaknesses and begin afresh. Please remember IIMs do not need a professor in Quant or verbal Ability. On the other hand you must have fair understanding of the concept on which questions are based and how to crack it. This is not the lack of confidence but the shadow of overconfidence and temptation to attempt more questions without understanding them prevent you from scoring high.

The level of competition is among top 40,000 candidates who fight to get the top position. If you can put yourself among top 4000 you can expect the IIM of your choice. IIMs have always been the most sought after B-schools, due to the great learning experience that you get there, the knowledge and Management skill they impart to their students and the excellent pay packages, their students get after completion of the course.

Acquaint yourself well with CAT 2017 Syllabus & pattern
Unless you know well about the exam you are going to appear, you may not be able to excel in it and may end up beating about the bush preparing with some wrong stuff. When you first know about CAT, you are not even aware what are its constituents, how to prepare, what to study, Can there be any well defined syllabus, where to begin and number of FAQs hover your mind. Sometimes you do not even find anyone to answer your queries.  When you begin your self-study, it appears that you have entered an unorganized thick and large forest where it is difficult to locate which way to go.

Now you need a tough study schedule with the help of some one, well experienced to train you in CAT 2017 preparation.

CAT 2017 exam is to have 2 testing sessions on November 26. The exam will have 100 questions divided in 3 sections with 32 to 34 questions each comprising MCQs and Non-MCQs. Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension; Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Ability are the 3 sections into which CAT 2017 exam would be divided.

Since the exam has sectional time constraint of one hour each, your CAT practice sessions should follow the same pattern.

Time to begin
Practice may not do much good to you unless and until you are very clear about the concepts. A balancing act is required to begin the journey which is considered tough till it is complete. Make sure you have got the right lesson and have understood it well.  Any misconception or misunderstanding of the same will land you in trouble. Every mistake will teach you for better. Recurring mistakes must be avoided. Understand the concepts, practice them as many times as possible.  The fundamental behind is to have more expertise. More you practice to solve the questions based on the understood concepts, more confident and accurate will be your approach.

IIMs reduce their CAT cut offs
Those who got top IIMs this year reveal that a reasonably good CAT score in all the 3 sections, supported by other factors, can lead you to IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore or Calcutta. Now, no more 100 or 99 percentile is required in CAT 2017 to get shortlisted by IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta or Lucknow for admission to their flagship PGP 2018-20 batch. This fact has been revealed in the admission process of 2017-19 batch. However, you still need a minimum percentile in each of the three sections although actual CAT 2017 cut off percentile may go much higher.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2017

Related links

• CAT 2017: 10 Application & Registration FAQs from aspirants of IIMs, FMS, MDI, answered by experts
• CAT 2017: 5 changes in Exam Syllabus; ensure your preparation on right CAT exam pattern & topics
• How to choose amongst CAT 2017, XAT 2018, NMAT 2017, SNAP 2017, IIFT 2017